Cultural Quirks: What would YOU cover?

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Cultural Quirks: What would YOU cover?

Lara and I were sixteen, and were taking showers after an afternoon of frolicking in the Okinawan ocean. Sandy and salty. It was a public beach, and the showers were partitioned off by one large hexagonal wall. There were boys. About 15 of them, in high school uniforms, outside the wall. And then suddenly there were three faces peaking around the hexagon, looking straight at our boobies.

According to a recent "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" episode on NPR,American women, on impulse, will use their hands to cover their breasts and genitals when surprise voyeuristic attacks like this one take place, but this isn't the norm in all cultures. Arab women, for example, will cover their faces–presumably so as not to get recognized. Samoan women cover their belly buttons. (Does anyone know why?)

On that sunny day in Okinawa, though, what I did was cover my mouth with my hands while simultaneously using my forearms to cover my nipples. And then I used one hand to point at them so they knew we were watching them, too. Suckers!!